So this week's episode had me pleasently surprised. When Luna first said "don't killsteal, noobs" I was already spelling out the rest of the episode: Luna tries, fails, then the mane six offer help, maybe another iteration of try and fail, then Luna accepts help and the villain of the week is destroyed. I honestly did not pick up on the fact that the Tantibus was a creation of Luna, even when it was (kinda) implied in an offhand sentence of hers1. I also especially liked the visuals in the final scenes of the shared dream. As someone mentioned, it bears a striking resemblence to The God of the Forest in Princess Mononoke. Plus, blowing manes in the wind.2

1Something along the lines of "It haunts my dreams every night." If that was just some evil being, she probably would've told someone by now.2Remember the "I wasn't prepared for this" song?

Earthling on Mars wrote:And apparently the CMC have a special talent for helping others find their special talent?

They fought so hard for their cutie marks, they got meta marks as reward.

I really wish I hadn't watched this on dailymotion, because that took away a lot from an otherwise great episode. In the beginning I thought the singing was a bit much, but it worked out alright. And of course the ending was... worth the wait, I guess? I think the cutie marks themselves could have gotten a better color scheme. They clash with the overall light coat tones of the CMC.

On a side note, this episode reminded me a lot of this marvelous fanfic, Three hundred and fifty, due to the overall theme of the CMC being more than just three childhood friends.

I must say, I thought the key message in this week's episode was not one you see every day, but a pretty good one to learn.

Spoiler:

Viscious cycles and ritualistic behaviour happens to loads of people without noticing why (the number of people I used to see when computers started being more of a thing using caps lock to capitalise the first letter of a word). Granted, the spa ponies problem was probably more reasonable that Applejack's ritual for feeding the pigs.

'Look, sir, I know Angua. She's not the useless type. She doesn't stand there and scream helplessly. She makes other people do that.'

(So, I'm not sure if there is even interest in this thread anymore, but since 1.) the xkcd forums never cared much about thread necromancy and 2.) we're still on the first page and 3.) the forums are dying anyway, I think it's no big deal to resurrect it.)

The movie Equestria Girls: Legends of Everfree was released. The girls, now with "SciTwi" from the third movie Friendship Games, partake in a school trip to camp Everfree and they honestly expect for no disruptive magic shenanigans to happen... yeah, they're not buying it in-universe either.

Spoiler:

I rather like this movie. While the ending suffers from the by-now clichéd rainbow beam and magic girl outfits (which totally makes sense if you consider how and why this movie was produced), everything up to that point is solid and enjoyable. Rarity and Pinkie are a bit flanderized, though. I guess it's hard to balance screentime for a big cast, but still they'd have done better in the background instead of spewing the same tired stuff. They managed that with Fluttershy pretty well.

My personal favourite part was Gaia's villain song. Daniel Ingram knows how to make 'em good. The animation overall also has improved from the first movie.

There is a scheduling kerfuffle for the final episodes of the sixth season. The finale was released in the UK ahead of the rest of the world, some networks are showing the episodes ahead of the USA and out of order to boot. You can watch the finale right now, but not the two episodes leading up to it. However they most likely will be filler episodes (or develop another plot line), since the finale is based on events that have been covered so far.

Spoiler:

I think the finale is great, except for the ending. I don't mind the McGuffin for the null field, which made the episodes interesting, but the rapid conversion of the changeling hive to friendshipfied changelings or whatever was poorly telegraphed. They could've done it with only Thorax getting an upgrade, then converting the hive off-screen after the episode. At least with Thorax we already knew he was special from his episode.

The best part is what this means for Starlight's character development. And Twilight's, since she has taken on two more aspects of a princess of Equestria: Being useless in a crisis and delegating to students.

I think I'll wait to watch the episodes in order before watching the finale. Equestria girls: Camp Everfree was good though. I especially liked the post credit scene.

One thing that bothered me from it though:

Spoiler:

How old is Timber supposed to be? He seems like he's meant to be adult age if he's helping to run the camp, but I guess maybe he's a younger brother helping out? Otherwise it's a bit weird him ending up with Twilight.

'Look, sir, I know Angua. She's not the useless type. She doesn't stand there and scream helplessly. She makes other people do that.'

I love Discord, so glad he was around for it. I agree that all the changelings becoming good (except for the queen) was a bit quick. I wonder what they'll do for the next set of big bads? I suppose there's always alternate universes.

'Look, sir, I know Angua. She's not the useless type. She doesn't stand there and scream helplessly. She makes other people do that.'

I've finally gone on a binge of MLP episodes. Just watched the S6 finale. Thoughts on it (in response to raudorn and Angua's conversation):

Spoiler:

I didn't think the conversion of all the changelings was too quick. The conversion happened after Thorax sprayed Chrysalis with a giant love ray, which is kind of a big thing. All the other changelings, who had presumably never really questioned Chrysalis's ways before, now have a reason to rethink stuff. Thorax's love may have affected the ambient atmosphere or something.

It's not like the conversion just happened out of thin air.

On the other hand, I don't really like the changelings' new appearance. That was the one disappointing thing about the finale.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands. –Douglas Adams

It's good, as a fun adventure movie. My only complaints are that the characters didn't feel like the had the depth that they do in the show (maybe understandable for a movie with a wider audience than the show), and that it fell into some clichés that the show usually avoids (like toward the end where Twilight and her friends got mad and abandoned each other.)

Tempest Shadow is an awesome villain, and her song is one of my favorites from the franchise. In fact, all the songs in the movie are really good. "Rainbow" from the end credits won't get out of my head.

I really love each of the ponies for different reasons: Applejack 'cause of her country vibe, Rarity 'cause of her poise and refinement, Rapid Dash because she's got wings... Pinkie Pie because she is just: Off the wall cray cray. And when she sang that song about ponies being turned into soup for the mysterious zebra or whatever? Totally hilarious. I saw an episode where they had a sleepover and tried to get along or something? And that villainess Nightmare Moon is p. cool she can do magics and stuffs. In fact the very first episode I saw was like the first episode and the ponies had to fight Nightmare Moon at the end and then she turned into Princess Luna or something? P. Good, awesome show for girls and I like it. <3 :)

Hinata to Naruto wrote:I used to always cry and give up. I made several wrong turns... I just wanted to chase after you, walk beside you.

Azula to Long Feng wrote:Don't flatter yourself, you were never even a player.